As CGTN’s Ken Browne hears first hand, many #Spaniards remain furious at the manner in which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez retained power and believe his amnesty deal will inevitably lead to a #Catalan independence referendum.
#Spain #Madrid
#Spain #Madrid
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi everyone, Ken Brown here live for you from the Plaza de España in the centre of Madrid
00:04 where we've just seen a protest against Pedro Sánchez and the current Spanish government
00:10 and particularly against the Catalan amnesty deal that comes before Parliament this week.
00:17 Now it's an extremely controversial measure. Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister, agreed to it with
00:23 the Catalan party Junts to help him get back into power. The right says that he has sold out the
00:30 country, that he continues to do so, that this is a weak government bound to fall. The right continues
00:35 to pile pressure on Sánchez and this government, a really broad coalition including SUMAR, a left
00:43 platform. Pedro Sánchez of course is the leader of the PSOE, Socialist Party. Now this week was a
00:50 pretty turbulent week in Spanish politics. It was confirmed that the Spanish intelligence agency
00:57 was spying on the president of the Catalan government, Pere Aragonés. We heard the
01:03 socialists come out and deny that they had any knowledge or any or authorised it in any form.
01:10 Here we've seen angry people on the right of this of the Spanish political divide voice their
01:17 opinions. Here's what they said to us here in Plaza de España.
01:45 The right of Spain's political divide insists that the amnesty deal is just a step towards giving
01:50 Catalonia an official independence referendum which could see the region break away from Spain.
01:57 So people here are afraid that the sovereignty, the integrity of Spain could be broken up by these
02:03 deals that Pedro Sánchez is doing with Catalan separatist parties. Now the PSOE, Sánchez have
02:11 repeated and reiterated a number of times that they will never give or they will not give an
02:16 independence referendum to Catalonia, that it does not, the Spanish constitution does not allow it.
02:23 This week, so what happens next? This week what's going to happen is that the amnesty law goes in
02:30 front of the Spanish congress. It should pass, it should have the sufficient support to pass through
02:36 the congress that will allow people like Carles Puigdemont who's been in exile in Belgium since
02:42 the illegal Catalan independence referendum in 2017 to allow to return to the country and to
02:49 continue to advocate for a Catalan independence. Now whether that happens or not remains to be
02:56 seen. We should see that Puigdemont returning. That deal looks like a done deal but it is,
03:03 it continues to cause a lot of division, a lot of anger particularly in Spain's opposition and the
03:08 right of the party. I'm Ken Brown here in Plaza de España. I'll bring you everything that happens
03:13 here in Spain as it happens. For now, it's adios.